Luna the cat

This is the view of my diagnonal downstairs neighbor's patio. On the table is the infamous 'balkon jumping' Luna the cat (who forunately hasn't repeated the feat). Luna likes to rule the kingdom down there, when they are not home. Although officially, she belongs to their daughter, my next door neighbor.

When they are home it seems she's stifled by their 'newly retired, puttering around the house' presence so she's out and about in the immediate area. She gives them plenty to do however, which seems to be a welcome interruption, because their other less adventurous cat just sits in the chair and sleeps and rarely ventures too far out of the yard.

I realized while being away that even a cat follows the German structure and order of things. Each night in the hour before the 7 PM church bells, like clockwork, Luna brings home something she's caught. She deposits it on the ground immediately in front on their patio door. She then proceeds to start yowling, to announce that someone should come look.

Normally the Hausfrau comes and aways congratulates her on her find. 'Oh Luna, you have done very well, good, good kitty' and then pets her. HF then summons her husband to come dispose of the dead snake, rodent, or frog. If the catch is still alive, she carries Luna inside and sends her man out to pick up whatever it is and take it to one of the nearby woody areas which surround us.

As you may imagine, the man of the house isn't as impressed with the cat's activities. The other day the activity was repeated, but the HF wasn't home, so it was up to the man to go through the routine solo. He must not have made a sufficient fuss, because the cat started up again, until I hear an exacerbated 'Luna, I already told you I saw it.' I get the feeling he prefers sleeping cat a litte more these days.

5 down, 10 to go

Days that is. I'm currently 1/3 of the way through my Intensive German course so thus the posting hiatus. My work colleagues and friends have been asking the same things, so here are the answers in advance. ;-)

How's the campsite?
Absolutely super. These things are often hit or miss, but I've been pleasantly surpised. I'll try to bring along the camera and take some photos of it.

Is there a shower?
Yes. There is a female bathroom/shower area and a separate male one. It's located on the floor below the restaurant. It's heated and immaculately clean at all hours. Showers are .50 cents, for about 3-5 min of hot water. You press a button and the water comes out for about 20-30 seconds, then you can lather up then press the button again, and keep repeating until the water pressure suddenly drops and starts to go cold, signifying about 30 seconds of cold water left.

How's the weather?
It's been chilly, and this area 1hr 20 min from tiny town of B got hit by major storms last week Sunday (my first night there), with many basements in the area flooded. I woke up to a slightly damp tent floor. As the tent has stayed dry through torrential rains in the Faroes and Iceland, to wake up to dampness I thought I was done for if I had 3 weeks of this coming.

How's the course?
For a VHS class, I'm pleasantly surprised. There are 7 people in my class; overall there are 4 different classes of people grouped by ability, which they ascertained on the first day with a written and oral test. The school planned a ton of events into the 3 weeks, including Saturday bus excursions (at no cost) to Cologne and Duisburg (yes Dbunny-really D'burg!), as well as local events during the week such as a local town historical walking tour and visit to a local castle. Since I've been in Germany so long most of the excursions aren't so interesting to me, except for one--meeting the mayor in the town hall, including a tour of the town hall. They needed a headcount the other day, they mayor will be serving drinks and needed to know in advance the number of glasses to have available.
(My work colleague's reaction to the above: hrrmph! my taxes paying for that!)

Who else is taking the course?
There is a wide mixture of students. Overall, I am in the middle of the age range in my class. There are housewives who have just arrived whose husbands have a work assignment here, there are students from Asia and Brazil, there are university students from Eastern Europe, there are people like me who live/work here and want to improve their existing skills, there is an au pair who arrived 2 days before the course started, there is a woman from Uruguay who works in Spain and enjoys studying German on her own and comes each year for this course (she's in her third year of it), and on and on. It's an absolutely delightful mix of people. I think there are overall 3 US folks out of 30 or so people, but the others are in different classes from me so we've only chatted during the breaks.

So what does your day look like there?
Well, I catch the 0755 bus from the campsite which puts me in town at 0821. Then I have enough time to pick up a good to-go coffee and a brotchen (small bread roll) for later in the morning. On Thursday and Friday I brought goat's cheese and raspberries to spread on the bread, superb. Class goes from 0900-10.30, break from 10.30-11.00, and then class from 11.00-12.30.

At 12.30 I may wonder around town a bit or I head back to the campsite area to eat lunch. Then in the afternoon I do the 20 min homework and then spend an hour or two messing around with my personal German grammar book, based on any of the words/constructions I heard in class but did not already know. I find my German is heavily skewed toward the office environment, as that is where I spend 40+ hrs/week or in practical things from the tiny town of B, such as going to the post office. Therefore my vocab and grammar tends to have holes in some of the more practical areas such as going to a hospital or talking about family things, as I have done neither here.

After I bore of that, I wander around in the area surrounding the campsite. It's absolutely tranquil and splendid in its beauty. I've also planned to go to the outdoor pool because it's literally right next door to the campsite, but the weather has been too chilly to warrent a visit yet.

In the evening I have a small early bite to eat and then catch up on reading for pleasure. So far, as it's been chilly, I've spent a lot of time in the tent reading, because it's too cold to just sit outside if you're not moving. I've read Einstein's Dreams, and then The Young Wan by Brendan O'Carroll, in case you're wondering. Thursday I started to read The Life of Pi. All of the above are from www.bookswapper.de, ones that I received over the past few months but hadn't any time to yet read. If the weather this week is like last, I'll need to take up another one to follow The Life of Pi.

As it gets too dark to read (just before 10), I usually go to bed, although I have candles with in case I want to continue reading.

What do you eat there?
That's been one of the best parts. Usually I find that I eat better while camping--probably because it involves more planning in advance. Since the weather (except one day) has been unseasonably cool (think late Sept in Philly--53 F lows), I've brought along more fresh things than I would have been able to otherwise.

I checked the weather predictions in advance and then brought along enough items that I would have some choice as nothing would go bad due to the cooler temps. In addition, I came by car, so that gave me some leeway to bring heavier things than if I was carrying everything and coming by train/bus. So my meals looked something like this during the past week:

Monday
AM - coffee (purchased)
late AM - boiled egg (boiled 3 of them at home and brought along)
lunch - German strawberries, raw califlower, fresh tomatoes from the balconey garden, an orange, a fresh bread roll
PM - fresh peas (the last from the balcony garden) which I shelled and ate raw. I love fresh peas.
dinner - cereal. Alnatura makes a cruncy granola/musli-like cereal, which is perfect if you're doing a lot of walking. I find it at DM-->Hafer Crunchy.

Tues
(like Monday)

Wed-Fri
lots of goodies from the local farmers' market

Highlight of the week?
The local farmers market on Wed mornings. I actualy woke up an hour early so that I could go before class as I heard early morning is the best time to go. (Knowing my opinion of early mornings, you can imagine this must have been something special to merit the early wake-up.) They open at 7 AM, I arrived by 8AM. The selection was enormous, rows and rows of sellers with everything (granted now is the peak harvest time), from the local area.

I bought: raspberries, eggs, corn, round and regular zucchinni, yellow squash, goat's cheese, green and black zebra tomatoes, peas, a coffee, and a pumpkin seed bread roll, all of which made up my meals for the rest of the week. I'm really looking forward to going again this week.

Any interesting differences H? Or is an hour from home really the same?
1. One glaring difference here...people consistently give you your change in your hand. One of the big differences from me when I first moved from the US to the Cologne area is that people consisently smack your change down on the counter or the tray on their little counter. Up here people consistently want to put it into your hand. I'm oddly reversed as it's the 'US way'. ;-)

2. I'm finding people to be downright pleasant in personality even though it's a large city; I'm finding the feeling closer to the tiny town of B rather than Cologne, even though population-wise it's definitely closer to the latter. I'm wondering if that's because their economy is heavily dependent upon outsiders, they are not a self-contained universe like Cologne. For example, the egg seller asked me where I was from, and I explained I'm here in a course blah blah. He thought this was quite good and he thinks the US is ok but it's good to be here also, blah blah. For such a large city I was not expecting such a small-town warmth.

Anything else to say H?
Yeah, I'll put up some advance posts which will appear in my absence for those few who check in regularly to read my drivel as I'm chock full of things to say apparently. ;-)

How to make sun-dried tomatoes

1. Grow a variety of tomatoes on your balcony. Be amazed and impressed (and afraid) when they all turn red at the same time.

2. Choose a few very red ones. Cut cherry or roma tomatoes in half, cut larger ones into quarters.

3. Take advantage of the limited sunny days in NRW, Germany and put them into your personal solar dehydrator (the car) first thing in the morning when you arrive at work. Place them on the dashboard on foil or a tray, sprinkle with dried herbs (optional). Park so that the tomatoes will get full afternoon sun. Make sure all windows are up.

4. Take a peek at the end of the day. These are the yellow and red cherry tomatoes. Looks like they'll need to be flipped over, and to enjoy a second full day of sun, to reach the desired dryness. They should be like a fresh raisen upon completion, with a little flexability, but dry.

5. Watch carefully and remember to bring the tomatoes in at night so that you don't attact unwelcome creatures into your car. Then bring them out the next morning to repeat the above. I'm not sure whose cat this is, as I'm not usually seeing it under my car. Could be a coincidence, or it was the drying tomato smell? We'll see if he comes back again the next time I do this...

Once tomato drying is complete, store them in ziploc bags in the freezer (if you have space in your tiny Germany freezer), or in glass jars in the cupboard. Then use tomatoes as a boost of flavor to pasta and sauces in the winter months.

How my Saturday was made

This morning, while I was picking tomatoes (will explain that project tomorrow), the postman arrived. Normally I miss seeing him because I'm in the office during the week when he delivers mail, and on Saturdays service is either early in the morning before I wake up, or late in the afternoon when I'm out shopping (thereby avoiding the Sat morning crowds).

Mail in the tiny town of B is mainly delivered by a small fleet of postal workers using these:

(Expect for the Post Frau who has the 1 postal vehicle in the tiny town of B, as she goes to the companies who have big mail deliveries.)

The postman noticed me puttering around and we were chatting about tomatoes. And he mentions 'Always it looks nice up there.' Oh, you flatter me so, and it's not even 10 AM, pre-coffee, my ego is not yet awake. ;-)

In particular, I feel my balcony looks 'functional' and 'utilitarian'; 'like a healthy garden allotment' was the backhanded compliment I once received. The one next to me with it's perfectly placed and tended flowers looks 'nice' in my book, like it could easily grace the cover of Better homes and balconys. So I especially appreciated his comment as it was completely unexpected and most certainly undeserved.

In case you're wondering, here's what it looks like these days from that angle. Be sure to notice the mightly gherkin hanging down over the ledge between the middle two silver posts. ;-)

And how will Heather be celebrating 5 years in DE?

If the weather cooperates (rain showers predicted for Sat afternoon, but we all know that forecast can change 10 more times before then), D and I will be grilling next to the Rhine in Deutz.

If the weather doesn't cooperate/after the grilling? We'll be going to my favorite local bar in Koeln Deutz, a ten minute walk away. They are having a DJ that night, something special--schlager music. No cover charge, the people are always quite friendly, and the Koelsch is 1.20 EUR. It's a real hole in the wall with an older crowd, absolute genuine and divine.

Want to join us at either or both of the above? Send me an email: phillygirl06 AT notcoldmail.com or leave me a comment here and I'll send you the exact coordinates. Both places are a 12 min walk from Koeln Deutz train station. And I'll even bring along an extra tofu dog for you.

happy 5 year anniversary,

of living in germany, to me.

Dinner from the balcony - tomatoes

I enjoyed the chilly, rainy weather by sleeping in late and then eating a large lunch. So by dinner time I was more in the need for a little snack than a meal and had not so much energy to cook. Good thing my downstairs neighbor pointed out to me that my tomatoes are 'ganz rot' today. ;-) I responded that I would definitely be eating them tonight, which was an acceptable response. (I love my flat and my neighbors. I could never have a stalker, because there are eagle eyes around the building, and they miss not a single thing.)

Here are the before photos. The green clump in the bottom right corner of the pot is basil. The yellow in the right of the photo are the yellow tomatos.

And here is the after photo. The basil went into olive oil with a sprinkle of garlic herb Mrs. Dash (which I brought from America for such culinary laziness) and fresh black pepper. The red at 12 o'clock is Nasturtium.

Tuesday's balcony lunch and Nasturtium

Right now it's tomato season on the balcony in the tiny town of B. We have our usual culprits:
-lettuce
-the never-failing cucumber
-cherry tomatos in excess (there's one yellow, and a tiny undersized red one hidden there)
-nasturtium (the red flower petals mixed in)
-olive oil (not from the balcony)

So what's with the Nasturtium, h? My Polish teacher knows I'm into gardening and gave me a few seeds two months back. For kicks I threw each in an empty spot. And boy did the suckers sprout up:

I researched online, the whole thing is edible. (OK, not that buggy leaf in the bottom right). The leaves and/or the flowers may be used raw in salads, or in a myriad of recipes. I was reading online that it's close to watercress in taste when raw, and when dried the leaves can be used as a substitute for black pepper.

Wowie does it have a sharp taste. I researched further, the younger leaves are less sharp, so I gave them a spin, no dice. I've resigned myself to only eating the red blossoms, as it's the only thing I can reasonably tolerate; as well as they look so lively in the salad with the bright red color. But in the meantime, because I'm not chopping off leaves, it's gaining steam. This was three days ago, and and since then I have 3 more blossoms.

One day I may wake up to a giant red flowered plant knocking on my closed balconey door (demanding I don't know what?) if I don't find an alternate use soon...

Weekend plans - Speyer

Scroll down a bit on this page, we're going to a 'Pretzel Party'. I think I would have translated it as 'Pretzel Festival', but ok.

Or you can go to this page in German to see photos or read all about it.

I think they're missing a market here, by not going after the non-German speakers. Granted, we're going to Speyer primarily to see Philly's greatest rock band, but I would have been tempted to go only for the Pretzel Party alone.

But then again, I'm from Philly, land of the soft preztel. I may just spend the entire weekend eating pretzels down there in Speyer. ;-)

Summer in Europe - August

As summer is currently grinding most offices to a halt here, I'm making the jump this year from a 2 week summer holiday to a 3 week summer holiday in August. I was busy with a large work project earlier in the year, so I have not taken any holiday yet this year.

Last summer was camping in the Faroes, the summer before was Iceland. This year, I'm going a bit domestic--I'm taking an intensive summer German course at a VHS in Germany, with a goal to perhaps take one of the Goethe tests in the fall. To make it a 'real' holiday, though, I chose a VHS over an hour away, and I'll be camping near it. However, I'll still be able to pop home once or twice a week to water the garden and pick the tomatoes, and do laundry.

So class 3.5 hours each morning, then the afternoon to relax at the outdoor lake, or to be a tourist in the larger cities nearby.

And after 3 weeks away from the office? I'll be taking one more week off, but not losing vacation time. The state of NRW graciously grants five days of Bildungsurlaub per year. I'll be taking a 5 full day course (in German, at B1 level) at my local VHS, 'German for the workplace'. It includes topics such as writing business letters, health and safety, and the rights of workers. I expect it to be quite interesting in subject matter, as company J is an American company, I suspect much of work life here is filtered through an American view, so I'm interested to hear how it is presented from a German perspective.

So if you're keeping track at home--I will be working one day during the entire month of August (Friday the first). And I'll still have 3 weeks of vacation to use yet this year. :-)

Language week Friday - German 2

das Letzte von der Sprachwoche/el último de la semana de la lengua/the last of language week from me :-)

Ok, ist ein bisschen teuer, aber, sehr toll--ein 'Blumenkasten' Grill. Vielleicht naechstes Jahr oder? Aber schwer zu aendern, von Blumen zu Grillen und zurueck?

Ok, it's a little expensive, but very cool--A flower box grill. Perhaps next year. But would it be difficult to change, from flowers to grill and back again?

(The text in the above link is German, but the photos are worth a look to see this nifty item. I'm sure the top right photo is tofu dogs. ;-))

Language week Thursday - Spanish 2

Ayer no tuve mucho tiempo para blog, entonces, yo pruebo español una vez más.

Yesterday I didn´t have much time to blog, so I try Spanish again.

Pero no tengo mucho tiempo esta noche tampoco. Fue a la piscina con mi colega de trabajo (de la oficina de Francia) después la oficina, y entonces fuimos a cenar. Siempre es interesante, con esta persona de Francia, pq hablamos de las noticias y culturas. Por ejemplo, ahora en las noticias en Francia, ella ha oido algo que Hilary dijo a Obama, que las periodistas de Francia piensan es importante...pero ella quiere saber...es algo importante en America o una cuenta de las periodistas franceses?

But I don´t have much time today either. I went to the pool with my work colleague (from the French office) after work, and then we went to dinner. Always it is interesting, with this person from France, because we talk about the news and cultures. For example, now in the French news, she had heard that Hilary said something to Obama, that the French journalists think is important...but she wanted to know...is it something important in America or a story from the French journalists?

Y le pregunté, ¿es las noticias sobre Angelina en Nice importante a la gente en Francia? Sí, es muy interesante a la Fraceses que una persona famosa como Angelina con mucho dinero, ella puede escoger cualquier lugar en el mundo para el nacimiento, y ella escoja Francia.

And I asked, is the news about Angelina in Nice important to the people in France? Yes, it´s interesting to the French, that a famous person with a lot of money, she can choose anywhere in the world to give birth, and she chooses France.

Tal vez necesito vivir en Francia después Alemania. O sea, apprender la lengua Francés sería un principio interestante...entonces no necisito para repetir en language week. :-)

Perhaps I need to live in France after Germany. Or maybe to learn French would be an interesting start...then I don´t need to "repeat" in language week. :-)

Language week Wednesday - Spanish

Estoy cansada y mi duele la cabeza.

Language week Tuesday - German

Letztes Wochenende haben wir Buchenwald besucht. 'Jedem das Seine' und nicht 'Arbeit macht frei' ist hier.
Last weekend we visited Buchenwald. 'To each his own' and not 'work makes one free' is here.



So so gross.
So so big.

Hier ist das Denkmal für die jüdischen Steinbrucharbeitskräfte.
Here is the memorial for Jewish quarry workers.

Von 1954-1958 wurde das Manmahl gebaut
From 1954-1958 the memorial was built.

Dieses Denkmal ist sehr Ostdeutsch
This memorial is very East German.

Language week Monday - Polish

(English below photo)

Co to jest?
To jest 'kalafior z bułką tartą'.
Jest tylko kalafior, bułka tarta, i masło.

To jest polskie przepis?
Oczywiście. ;-)

What is that?
It's 'cauliflower with bread crumbs'.
It's only cauliflower, bread crumbs, and butter.

Is it a Polish recipe?
Of course. ;-)

My photo skills don't do this one justice, but if you get a young, fresh cauliflower, this is superb. Better photo and recipe here.

the return of language week

Mausi mentioned, Langauge week has come around again:

time to get crackin.

Lunch from the balcony - Tuesday

OK, excluding the goat's cheese, from the balcony. Assembly required. We have today:

-baby lettuce (growing too closely together, so a plethora of little leaves)
-a tiny strawberry hidden under the lettuce
-a turkish or hungarian pepper at the top (more pepper flavor than hot)
-tomatos
-basil
-sage (a little spicyness to balance out the mild favors)
-and taking center stage - cucumbers (will they ever stop??)

Lunch from the balcony

Fresh from the balcony this morning, everything in this salad was grown on my balcony. We have:

-lettuce (2 different types)
-tomatos (the yellow guy on the right is from my dwarf yellow Dutch cherry tomato plant, the red ones are from a balcony tomato plant, not exactly cherry tomatos, they get slightly larger and are more like 'regular' tomatos in taste and texture)
-half of a cucumber (from the never-ending supply)
-peas (2 pods, 1 bottom left)

now if only i could figure out how to cultivate olive oil and goat's cheese on the balcony.

word cloud

How amusing, which words I use.

In case you want to wear your blog words on a t-shirt, check it out. Wouldn't this make for a fun 'guess the writer' game at the next whiny expat meetup. ;-)

The garden upon return

While I was in the US for 14 days (while Germany observed high temps from 13-30 C), a special someone was 'drafted' to come and water the garden every few days.

I was pleasantly surprised at his results. He never saw fresh lettuce growing in dirt before and has a self-proclaimed lack of talent with green things, but I think it's just a front... ;-)

I'll be using the peas with tofu tonight in a stir-fry:

The berries will be going to the office tomorrow. These are my German plants, which are slightly later and sweeter than my Dutch strawberry plants.

This is my dwarf yellow tomato from Holland. He's in a planter box, currently overshadowing the lavender. The tomatos are there, but still green. I've thinned out a few of the branches today (at 6 AM because I was jet-lagged awake with nothing to do), and because the tomatos are heavily shaded by the greenery so they could use a little more sun.

While in the US, I was not impressed with the Salmonella outbreak and the lack of tomatos everywhere. Even more reason to plant your own food these days, I guess.

And finally, the flowering vine corner. Here are the cucumbers and squashes. Cucumbers have been my bumper crop so far this year. I've eaten 10 of them and had eaten all the baby ones before I left leaving only flowers and minute ones on the vine. I came home to 5 more, 3 of which were hanging off the balcony due to weight on the vine, intruding upon my very nice neigbor below (who pointed them out as healthy looking and impressive), as well as viewable by the general population.

I'm pretty sure I'm now known in the building this month as 'that crazy American, with the cucumbers'. I've brought them back up, and situated them so that they're resting on the 4 inch ledge and wrapped the vines back through the railings. They are mini-gurkens (so the recommended grow size is 10 cm), which I whole-heartedly recommend if you have a container garden. If the keep up at this pace, I'm tempted to look into making pickles or putting them in the hallway with a 'free' sign.